


Through the Grapevine

by avatays



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Ambassador Sokka (Avatar), Canon Compliant, Chaotic Toph Beifong, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Dorks in Love, F/M, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Palace Staff, Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Fluff and Crack, Gossip, Kataang if you squint, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Polyamory, Post-100 Year War (Avatar TV), Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Post-Canon, Puppy Love, Rumors, also i don't know how to tag can you tell, i just really love zukki, some suggestive language and swears, that’s it though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avatays/pseuds/avatays
Summary: Suki and Sokka had been together for years, everyone knew that. In the past few months, they’d added Zuko into the mix, after years of pining and rethinking their feelings before the three of them had figured out what they wanted.They aren’t ready to tell anyone yet, so they’re just trying to keep things to themselves for now.Too bad the Fire Nation palace is full of gossips. And unfortunately, much like the game telephone, they never quite get it right the more it gets passed around.
Relationships: Sokka/Suki/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 311
Collections: A:tla, ATLA Polyamory Fics





	Through the Grapevine

It had been six months since Suki, Sokka, and Zuko finally decided to face the music and tell each other how they felt. Remarkably, they all felt the same way.

Seven years since the end of the war, and it still took the three of them five years to develop or recognize these feelings, and another two to try and figure out how to act on it. (In retrospect, Sokka and Suki _really_ should have discussed that with each other much earlier instead of just assuming the other would hate them for their feelings, it would have saved them both over a year of agony.)

But nevertheless, everything was going smoothly in their relationship. Suki was still the Fire Lord’s chief guard, spending most of her time in Caldera with Zuko, and Sokka split his time between assisting the rebuilding of the Southern Water Tribe and working as an ambassador in the Fire Nation.

Sokka had just returned to Caldera, and Suki could feel her heart begin to sing as she saw him walking up to the palace. She had gone to meet him, Zuko had insisted she go alone since he had other duties he couldn’t escape from, as well as telling her “give him a kiss for me, I’ll see you both as soon as I can get away.”

So when Sokka opened his arms, she threw herself into them, and he spun her around with a laugh that she echoed. When they had walked inside the palace, away from the prying eyes of the royal guard outside the perimeter, she pulled him close and said, “I missed you,” and kissed him deeply. When they parted, he didn’t even have time to give a snarky reply, before she pulled him back in and added, “And this one’s from Zuko,” before kissing him again.

Sokka smiled. “Where is he, anyway? He said in his letter that he would be here.”

“He is here, but some governors from the colonies showed up,” Suki said with a sigh as they approached the room where Sokka stayed, right next to Suki’s and just around the corner from the royal suite. “They’re angry at him about something, who knows what, and he couldn’t wiggle out of it. So he said to ‘show you how much we both missed you until he can find us.’” 

“Is that so?” Sokka asked with a suggestive smirk. When Suki nudged him playfully, he laughed. “I’m kidding — partially. We really should go rescue him though.”

Suki nodded her agreement, and they hurried to put Sokka’s things in his room before heading for the throne room. They knew how much Zuko hated the throne room, but he had meetings there sometimes; his advisors said it was a “show of power,” which only made Zuko hate it more.

And no matter how much the sages told him he should, he absolutely refused to sit behind that wall of fire. He already hated the room enough, but he had put his foot down there. And there were some things the fire sages knew they couldn’t fight him on; that was one of them.

Suki pushed open the double doors with purpose, and everyone turned to look at her. Zuko perked up immediately at the sight of her, and smiled widely when he noticed Sokka was there as well. 

“Sorry, governors, but there’s been an emergency,” Suki said, bowing stiffly at the half dozen men at the table.

“Can’t it wait?” One of them said, glaring at Suki.

Suki stood her ground. “It can _not_.” 

Zuko got up and said, “Well, if it’s so important, I’m afraid I must cut our meeting short. Please let the other Kyoshi Warriors escort you to your rooms, I’m sure we can finish this later.”

Zuko did his best not to scurry out of the room. As soon as Suki closed the doors behind him, he let out an exhausted sigh. “Thank you — I’m assuming there wasn’t actually an emergency?”

“Um, yes, there is,” Sokka said with a scoff, before touching Zuko’s face. “I missed my boyfriend and needed to see him immediately, it was of international importance.”

“Oh really?” Zuko teased. “International importance?”

“Yes! I would have caused such a stink, oh, you wouldn’t have believed it.” Without another word, Sokka leaned down and kissed him quickly.

Zuko blushed, his unscarred cheek nearly matched the red of his left side. “ _Sokka,_ not out here.”

“Why not? Who’s gonna tell the Fire Lord what to do in his own palace?” Sokka asked.

Suki giggled. “Come on then, we’ve got some catching up to do.”

\---

The next day, Suki and Ty Lee were going over the schedule for the Kyoshi Warriors for the following week, when Ty Lee finally spoke up. “So,” she began. “Sokka’s here now.”

Suki smiled. “Yeah. And?”

“Nothing, nothing, I just think it’s interesting how Zuko spends so much time with him when he’s here — as much time as you spend with him, actually,” Ty Lee continued, a teasing lilt to her tone. 

Suki waited. “...And?”

“Is Sokka fucking Zuko?”

“Ty Lee!” Suki gasped, flushing crimson at her friend’s boldness.

“So it’s true!” Ty Lee squealed. “I knew it! Oh, Song owes me so much money, I told her all three of you were together, I — ”

“How did you figure it out?” Suki asked.

“I have my ways. One of those ways is having eyes. You guys aren’t nearly as sneaky as you think you are,” Ty Lee tittered. She touched Suki’s hand. “Don’t worry, it’s not like everyone knows.”

\---

It turned out that Ty Lee was right, not everyone knew — but a _lot_ of people did.

Two weeks after Sokka had gotten back to the palace, he said he had “almost gotten caught with Zuko” a few times.

_Almost_ must mean something different to Sokka than it does to the rest of them, because it spread like wildfire around the palace.

“Did you hear?” One of the maids whispered to the other as they worked on the wash outside. “Rokai says that she saw the Fire Lord leaving his head guard’s room this morning.”

“Suki?” The other whispered. “Oh, poor Sokka, does he know?”

“That’s the thing! She said the ambassador left just after him.”

“They were _all_ there? Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re sleeping together, they’re all friends, aren’t they?”

“Yuma, don’t be a fool. I want you to watch the way those three interact together and tell me honestly that you think it’s not at all romantic.”

“ _Fine_.”

\---

Later that night, Yuma was replacing the sheets on the Fire Lord’s bed when she heard noises coming from outside. There was a soft banging noise, like a fist hitting a wall, and her blood went cold. Was it another break-in? An assination attempt? She wasn’t a bender, she wasn’t a fighter, she had no way to defend herself if —

She heard the noises getting louder as they neared the Fire Lord’s chambers, the muffled voices growing closer. Yuma rushed to the corner of the room to find some semblance of a hiding place, when the door was thrown open. She saw a flash of red and gold pushed forward into the room, and recognized the scar of the Fire Lord. She began to weigh her options, what she could do to help, when Ambassador Sokka followed him in and pushed him up against the wall behind him, before grabbing both sides of his face and kissing him passionately.

Yuma could do nothing but stare. There were two exits in the room, but both of them were past the Fire Lord, how could she — was she going to get banished for this, for seeing something she shouldn’t?

Suki followed them in, closing the door behind her — but unlike the two men, she quickly noticed that there was a fourth party in the room. Yuma could see Suki’s expression, now free of her warrior face paints, and she paled when she caught Yuma’s eye. Suki didn’t look away, but she hit Sokka on the back a few times to try and draw his attention.

Sokka sighed when he pulled away. “What?”

“We have company.”

Sokka spotted her in the corner of the room, and leapt away from Zuko. Zuko saw her, and his eyes (well, his right eye) widened in shock. “Uh — hi. It’s... you’re Yuma, right?”

Yuma nodded slowly, holding the sheets close to her chest, as if it would ground her back to reality. “I-I’m sorry, I was just changing the sheets, I was... I’m _so_ sorry, Lord Zuko, I — ”

Zuko sighed. “It’s fine, it’s my fault, I forgot someone would be in here right now.”

Yuma didn’t know how to respond to that. She had been working at the palace for a while, but just like most of the workers there, her interactions with the Fire Lord were few and far between. And more than that, she never thought she would see the day that the Fire Lord took the blame for anything, let alone when she was there, easy to use as a scapegoat.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Zuko tacked on quietly.

Sokka mumbled under his breath, “You’re welcome for _getting_ to see that.” Suki flicked his ear in response.

“I can leave,” Yuma eventually managed to get out, deciding it was in her best interest to ignore what had just occurred entirely. “I just... the sheets are done, I need to just take these to laundry so...”

“Yeah, of course,” Zuko said all too quickly. “Uh, thanks... bye.”

Yuma rushed from the room, turning back to look at them as she left, and she saw Sokka wave awkwardly at her, Suki closing the door behind them. Yuma ran down the hall, still holding the dirty sheets she had been holding since they had all walked in, and she didn’t stop running until she was in the laundry room.

She was heaving for air when she arrived, dropping the sheets as she got through the door. 

“Yuma?” Izaki asked, coming forward to meet her. “What happened? Are you alright?”

“You were right,” she gasped out. “The — the Fire Lord — and the Ambassador — and _Suki_! They were — I saw them!”

The dozen other people in the room stopped cold, one of them even dropping the heap of clothes she had been holding into the wash bucket below her in her surprise. “What?” Izaki asked, a grin sliding across her face. “Really?”

“Yes! They didn’t know I was changing the sheets and I heard weird noises and at first I thought that someone had broken in,” Yuma rambled. “Then the Ambassador and the Fire Lord walked in and — Izaki, stop smiling! They were completely going at it, and I was just standing there until Suki noticed!”

“Oh, this is amazing,” one of the other women in the room laughed. “I can’t believe this, I owe one of the guards a date now, she told me that they were all together but I didn’t believe her.”

“How — how does _everyone_ here know this?” Yuma hissed.

“I heard it through the grapevine,” Izaki said, waving her off. “And not _everyone_ knows. Certainly none of the nobles and sages know — Agni forbid _they_ found out — I’m not sure who else does, but I think it’s mostly contained to the palace. Let’s try to keep it that way.”

Yuma nodded, deciding to go along with it. No matter how much she liked the gossip, she was loyal to the Fire Lord and her nation. Fire Lord Zuko was kind and honorable to everyone he met, including the palace staff; she wasn’t going to try and spread rumors in an attempt to destroy his reputation among the nobles.

No, she was going to be keeping this to herself as best as she could. It would stay within the palace, if it left her lips.

\---

Unfortunately, not everyone at the palace had Yuma’s self-control. 

The next day, one of the workers told a friend. 

(“You won’t believe this — Lord Zuko is _involved_ with the Kyoshi Warrior girl!”

“I thought she was with the Water Tribe boy?”

“No, that’s the thing! They’re _both_ hooking up with the Fire Lord!”) 

The details had gotten a bit mangled in the excitement, so when that girl passed it on to another friend, it went a bit differently. 

(“The Fire Lord and the Ambassador are together! My friend works in the palace, she said it’s serious! We may even get _two_ Fire Lords soon.”

“Seriously? Wait, the Water Tribe ambassador? I thought he was with...?”

“Apparently, the Fire Lord is with her too! Can you believe it?”

“But... how—?”

“Well, I mean, he’s still the Fire Lord, he needs an heir, right? I don’t think the Ambassador can do that, of course he’d ask the Kyoshi girl!”)

The details continued like this — the further it got passed on, the more the message was misunderstood, but still told to any ear willing to listen.

It became evident the rumors had gotten out of hand when three weeks later, Toph was teaching her students in Yu Dao. She noticed they were all gossiping, and she could feel their focus was their conversations and _not_ on their katas.

“What?” She snapped. “What is it that’s got you all whispering?”

She could feel all of their heart rates speed up, but she wasn’t backing down. She pointed at one of them, who she knew was responsible for some of the gossip.

“You,” she said. “Tell me, now.”

“I — Master Beifong, I...” Puo spluttered. Toph gave him a second to compose himself, hands on her hips, waiting for him to continue. “I... I heard from my cousin in the colonies that... well...”

“Just spit it out!”

“There’s a rumor that came from Caldera, that um, your friends — that they’re _involved._ They said that the Fire Lord got his head guard, the, uh, Kyoshi Warrior, pregnant.”

“... _What_?” Toph hissed out. She felt Puo’s heartbeat stutter as he forced himself to continue.

“And — and that your friend, Ambassador Sokka, he’s apparently marrying the Fire Lord. My cousin heard it from her friend, who heard it from her friend, who heard it from her sister that works in the palace.”

The silence was deafening. Toph could hear the ringing in her ears getting louder. Appa could have busted through the wall of her academy, and she wouldn’t have even blinked.

Toph waved a hand and walked towards the door. “Work on your stances.”

“Wh-where are you going?”

“Cranefish Town,” Toph barked over her shoulder. “You all better not slack off while I’m gone, I’ll be quizzing you when I get back!”

She grinned when she heard the loud groans follow her outside. The grin only grew to a more despicable level when she realized _she_ was the one who would likely get to tell Katara this news — oh, she couldn’t _wait_ to get to Cranefish Town.

\---

Katara was feeling great about how her life was going, frankly. She and Aang had just gotten back from fixing up the Eastern Air Temple, they were set to go visit home in the Southern Water Tribe to see Hakoda and Gran-Gran for her grandmother’s birthday. (She made a mental note to write Sokka to remind him, or else he would definitely forget.) 

Air Temple Island was almost complete, they had moved in and everything, there was just a bit more building to do to put the finishing touches together. Aang and Zuko had been in frequent communication with some of the other major powers and rulers of the world, to form what Aang was calling “the United Republic of Nations,” which both Aang and Zuko hoped would fix some of the problems with the colonies.

All together, things were going well. 

Until, of course, Toph crashed their late lunch.

Aang didn’t have a problem with Toph’s abrupt arrival, he never did, and Katara normally wouldn’t — however, the smirk on Toph’s face made her incredibly apprehensive that something bad had happened, and Toph was reveling in the misfortune.

“So,” Toph began as she sat down at the table on Air Temple Island, grabbing some of the food. “I’ve just heard the most interesting gossip.”

Katara was right to have been worried.

The second Toph finished spinning her tale, Katara stood and declared, “Sokka’s _WHAT_?!” 

Aang sprang to his feet. “Now let’s think this through — ”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Katara screeched. “We need to get to the Fire Nation — NOW!”

Aang simply sighed. “Yeah, okay, I’ll go get Appa.”

When Toph walked with him, she had simply laughed. “Could you be any more whipped, Twinkletoes?”

Aang rolled his eyes. “Katara would sooner create her own hurricane to get her to Caldera than let this go, what’s _your_ recommendation here?”

“Huh.” Toph shrugged. “Good point.”

They were set on a course to the Fire Nation capital before the food had even cooled.

  
  


\---

  
  


It was rare for them to have a moment like this, and Zuko was trying to soak it all in. He usually had meetings during breakfast, or had to be briefed on what he had to do the whole day as he ate, but today, he was able to enjoy breakfast in his own quarters with Sokka and Suki. 

He had a sneaking suspicion that Suki may have threatened his advisors to give him the morning off, but he wasn’t going to complain, especially not when she was smiling like that. 

They had spent a lot of nights alone since Sokka had gotten back from the Southern Water Tribe, granted, but he usually had to leave as the sun rose. Which meant Suki had to go as well, which led to Sokka complaining for about an hour that they had woken him up as he tried to convince them to come back to bed, until Suki would remind him he had his own duties to attend to. 

(“I’ll do it later,” Sokka had once whined. “There’s no other ambassador for my tribe here, what will they do? Go ahead _without_ me? Yeah, right.” Zuko wished he could argue with that point, but he couldn’t; even though Sokka only threw the idea around just because he wanted to hang onto both of them like a koala-panda, Zuko wanted to ignore his duties just once and stay in bed all day, too. No interruptions, just the three of them. The more he thought about Sokka’s words, the more he wanted to agree. What _would_ they do? Go about Fire Lord business? _Without_ the Fire Lord? He wanted to be selfish, just a bit, just for a day — )

His thoughts were interrupted by Sokka’s laugh as he threw a piece of banana-strawberry into Suki’s mouth, who caught it expertly. When Suki returned the favor with her own throw, Sokka missed and it hit him on the nose. Suki snorted, and Sokka laughed louder, declaring, “You did that on purpose!”

“No, you need to get better at catching it!”

“Your aim is much better than that, you were throwing it just to hit me!”

“Maybe so,” Suki finally admitted with a smirk.

“Hey,” Zuko began softly. “I love you. Both of you.”

They smiled at him, and Sokka reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “We know,” he teased. “You tell us enough. And we love you, too.”

Zuko grinned. It was a beautiful day, and with the way the sunlight shining through hit Sokka’s cheekbones just right, the way Suki’s eyes twinked when she looked at him, made him think that nothing could ruin this perfect morning —

He heard a loud noise and footsteps outside. Suki was up and on her feet with a fan in hand in an instant. Zuko hadn’t even had a chance to get up before he heard Ty Lee’s voice shout, “Wait — he isn’t expecting you!”

“ _I KNOW!_ ” Katara’s voice roared. “That’s the idea!”

Sokka’s eyes widened and he looked at Zuko worriedly, just as the door was thrown open, revealing Katara with Aang and Toph just behind her. 

Sokka laughed nervously, standing up to hug his sister. “Hey guys, what’s the reason for the unexpected visit?”

Toph snickered and shook her head, Aang looked apologetic. Sokka finally let go of Katara when he realized she wasn’t going to hug him back, and she was still seething. “Oh, we had to come give our congratulations, of course!”

“On...?” Suki prodded.

“On the baby!” Katara said sarcastically. “Toph told us the most interesting rumor, actually. Apparently, I owe you all some wedding and maternity gifts, because _no one bothered to tell me that my brother was marrying the Fire Lord and his girlfriend was pregnant!_ ” Her voice rose to a shout as she continued the sentence, and when she was done, there was only silence filling the room.

Zuko’s mouth fell open in surprise. He tried to find the words, tried to force himself to answer, but he couldn’t form a coherent sentence.

Sokka turned to Suki. “You’re pregnant? You should have told me, I wouldn’t have been so mean to you yesterday.”

Suki rolled her eyes. “I am _not_ pregnant. I don’t even know — that doesn’t make any sense! If I was pregnant, why would Sokka be the one marrying Zuko?”

“You see, that’s what _I_ was wondering,” Aang mused, slightly bitter as he continued, “But no one wanted to listen to me, apparently.”

“That’s the rumor going around,” Toph tacked on. “It got to my students in Yu Dao, which means it’s gotten pretty far. Think it’s time to address it?”

Sokka rushed to Zuko’s desk. “Fuck, dad’s gonna hear this and be _so_ mad for not telling him.” He messily began to pen a letter, nearly spilling the ink a few times in his haste.

“I’m already mad!” Katara snapped. “Whether the rumor was entirely true or not, it had to have started _somewhere_. You guys are all together, right?” When Sokka sighed and nodded, she added, “So you just — what? Didn’t trust us enough to tell us?”

“That’s not it at all,” Sokka told her quickly. “We were busy, I haven’t even seen you guys in months — haven’t even gotten a hello yet, actually — ”

“Hello!”

“ _Thank you,_ Aang,” Sokka said to the smiling boy who was just trying to diffuse the tension. 

Zuko groaned loudly. “This wasn’t supposed to get so messy — how did that rumor even start, anyway?”

“Look,” Suki began. “This is new, the last time we saw you guys, we had all just started dating, and we didn’t want to jinx it. We wanted to tell you all sooner, but it seemed like something to say in person, and none of us can leave easily for a spur of the moment visit, it’s not like we can just pop over to Cranefish Town — do you _know_ how many strings I had to pull to make everyone leave Zuko alone for just this morning?”

“I knew it,” Zuko muttered under his breath.

Suki waved him off, and Sokka added, “We weren’t trying to keep it from you. Honest.”

“That’s very reasonable,” Aang said quickly from beside Katara, as if to calm her down. She was still frowning, and he held her hand gently. “It’s new, and we haven’t seen them much since then. It’s just unfortunate that this rumor went around and broke it to us before they could. It wasn’t personal.”

Katara finally sighed. “I know it wasn’t, I just... I wish you would have told me. I’m happy for you, I would have been so much happier for you if you had just _told me_ in the first place. But I guess I understand why you didn’t.”

“Thanks,” Sokka said with a smile.

Katara looked up at the ceiling, before turning back to Sokka. “Can I get that hug now?”

“I dunno, are you gonna scorn me like last time?”

Katara rushed forward and threw her arms around him. “I’ve really missed you, you know. We’re never in the same place at the same time anymore, it feels like.”

“I know, we need to try harder,” Sokka reassured her.

“Oh, while I’m here, I should remind you about Gran-Gran’s birthday next month. You said we were all going down to the South Pole to see her again. You remember, right?”

Sokka hesitated. “...Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, I do _now._ ” 

Katara pulled away and Aang took her place. Sokka rolled his eyes when Suki came forward too, and she pulled Zuko along with her. Toph was dragged into it by Katara. He sighed out of fake exasperation as he was forced into the center of a group hug.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, we love each other,” he finally managed to get out when everyone let go. “But seriously, now that you’re here, are you guys planning to stay for a while?”

“I suppose,” Toph said with a shrug.

Aang nodded ecstatically, and Katara mirrored his energy, although slightly more subdued.

Suddenly, Suki swore. “Shit. If that’s the rumor going around, we’re going to need to make an announcement,” she said. “If that’s what Toph heard, can you imagine what’s going around in places like the North Pole or Ba Sing Se?”

Sokka flushed slightly, before nodding. “We’re going to have to say something. Like, you know, that the Fire Lord is not engaged to be married nor has he knocked anyone up — you haven’t, right?” He asked, turning towards Zuko.

Zuko rolled his eyes. “Not unless something happened that I don’t know about.”

“There’s always going to be speculations about you guys even if you deny it today,” Aang chimed in. “You’re going to need to tell everyone eventually.”

“May as well tell them the truth _today_ then,” Zuko told them.

“Hm,” Suki said softly.

“What?”

“Nothing. I guess I just expected you’d be more worried to make this announcement. When we brought up the societal implications of us all dating, right when we got together, you almost had a panic attack. And now you’re just accepting it, so quickly. I thought you’d be more... afraid.”

Zuko looked at his friends. Sokka was smiling widely, his arm still thrown around his sister’s shoulders, and the corner of Suki’s lip upturned in a small grin. 

“I’ve got you guys,” Zuko told them, looking at each of his friends in turn. “What do I have to be afraid of?” He stood up. “Now, let’s go break it to the sages about our announcement.”

“Oh, if we’re lucky, one of them will have a stroke after they hear the news,” Toph declared happily.

“Toph!” Aang gasped, scandalized.

Sokka smirked. “We should be so lucky.” He approached Zuko and lightly took one of Zuko’s hands in his. “Are you sure about this? We could make something up, if you’re not ready.”

When Suki came up to grab his other hand, Zuko smiled. “I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”

**Author's Note:**

> based on the textpost by tumblr user @saltytierra. thank you so much to them for giving me permission to use your idea and bring this silly little fic to life.  
> i hope you all enjoyed it, and if you did, feel free to drop a comment, they're much appreciated!  
> thanks for reading!  
> \- tay


End file.
